In addition to the 2nd round pick, Houston also gave Detroit cash considerations. How many dollars do you think Chase is worth?

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With Tay gone, Air-Bud would be the Pistons' starting SF and likely their best 3 point shooter. Budinger will never be an all-star but he's better than anything that we have at SF (although, I'd take Jeb over him any day if you consider him a SF). Right now he's a "decent" rotation player and someday he'll be a "solid" rotation player.

Yeah, but there could have been an out, like the reverse of a bi-annual exception or something, where every two or three years a team could buy out one player's contract (if he agrees) with only the current year's salary affecting the cap. I'm sure Rip wouldn't mind making his $25 million right now and going and playing for Boston. That clause would be a win-win for all parties.

The problem with the current system is that a player can actually have negative value, where teams are looking to trade players for less than what their skills deem that they are worth. There has to be a middle ground.

Owners simply have upper hand now( although nobody foresaw it) and for players it is better to understand.

After one year lockout, owners' stance is even stronger.

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hey rax, nobody foresaw it? what?

that was the reason zeke bought the CBA (continental basketball association) in august of 1999. to create another league that the players could jump to in the event the owners and they couldn't come to agreement. to give the players leverage. he would've owned the new league, he was the NBA's competition and a potential major thorn come the talks.

he had balls the size of coconuts.

in 2000 Stern and the NBA offered him $11,000,000 and piece of future profits if he'd sell them the league so that they could stifle the competition before talks.

in june of 2000 zeke offered to sell the league to the players association. they could control their own destiny. almost immediately stern and the NBA announce the formation of the NBDL.

up until then the nba used the cba as it's development league, they announced that starting in 2001 they would use their own league (nbdl) to develop players. point being they were going to publicly starve the cba of any future players.

the players association, being exceptionally shortsighted and fearing reprisal turned down zekes offer. the rest is history.

the owners locked down all the leverage in that summer and have had it ever since. there's absolutely no surprise that the owners are fully in charge and will get whatever they want in the end. it's a foregone conclusion and has been for over a decade.

the owners locked down all the leverage in that summer and have had it ever since. there's absolutely no surprise that the owners are fully in charge and will get whatever they want in the end. it's a foregone conclusion and has been for over a decade.

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then it is better to accept the reality.

There is neither greener pastures at overseas nor european team like possibility that some hired NBA players might leave at the half season due to end of the lockout in NBA.( i.e NBA still plays half season).

Rumours say the players will decline the $62M flexcap / 8 percent rollback offer. Rumours also say that if the players decline the league will withdraw the $62M offer, begin the lockout and go for a $45M hardcap. It's only rumours floating around and even if it's the truth it might just be scare tactics but it might also be a year without NBA basketball.

With the lock out officially on...I'm figuring this will be a long and ugly stoppage.
I'm figuring on possibly losing the whole season. The owners aren't just proposing curring salary, they're looking to change the way business is conducted in the NBA...

Unlike the NFL...these players have other teams around the world that will pay some good cash. The NFL only has the CFL and Arena Football, who pay only a little more than Darth makes...

Let's face it, attending a live sporting event is one of the least cost-effective ways to having a good time, and yet we turn out in droves because we have an addiction to feed called fandom. But being forced to observe billionaires and millionaires argue over how they're going to share our money? That's more than a little insulting. Figure it out behind closed doors without using our goodwill as leverage.

"Going to overseaslike at the greener pastures " is a big american myth. There are barely 5 teams in euroleague capable of paying MLE salary (5-6 mil) for ONE player. Most of Euroleague teams are "veteran minimum salary at best "

And in europe - there is no juicy commercial contracts for american players.

Also notice how NBA and owners trie to insist "only half season lockout". Nobody "at the overseas" want players only for the half-season.

And undrafted players and college players try to get contracts in Europe anyway. By september most teams in Europe are completed and there is no money left for striking NBA players.

What if the players just started their own league and all take a share of the ownership? They could hire away all of the executives at their previous teams to run the thing.

Rent college arenas.

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They actually could do that. They have something that the owners do not have right now and thats something that people actually want to pay to see. Without the players its just an empty arena.

I don't really care who owns what as long as there is a season and they do not get too crazy with the particulars. I do not like the 3 year max contracts the owners want, sometimes you actually have a player you hope to keep. I also would like to see a semi-soft cap and not too much revenue sharing. I like dynasties, they keep things interesting. Plus if your team is one its nice to have to tools to keep it together for a few years rather than some kind of free for all every year that owners seem to want - at least the small market owners anyway.

I think if they just de-expanded and dropped a couple of teams it would be a lot better for everyone.